CN110662705B

CN110662705B - Safety bag

Info

Publication number: CN110662705B
Application number: CN201880029196.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吉迪恩·谢尔佩斯
Original assignee: Ji DienXieerpeisi
Current assignee: Ji DienXieerpeisi
Priority date: 2017-03-02
Filing date: 2018-03-02
Publication date: 2022-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 2038-03-02
Also published as: EP3589560B1; MA47034A1; WO2018158734A1; CN110662705A; MA47034B1; EP3589560A1; ZA201905823B; EP3589560A4

Abstract

The present invention relates to a security bag, and more particularly to a tamper evident bag (10). The tamper evident bag comprises a security bag (12) having at least one opening (14) and is provided with a bag visual indicator (16 a). The tamper evident bag (10) further includes a seal (18) for securely closing the at least one opening (14) of the security bag (12). The seal (18) is provided with a seal visual indicator (20) associated with the bag visual indicator (16a) such that when the seal (18) is broken, it is apparent that there is unauthorized access to the security bag (12). The invention extends to a tamper evident kit comprising a security bag (12) and a separate seal (18).

Description

Safety bag

Technical Field

The invention relates to a safety bag. In particular, the present invention relates to a tamper evident bag, a tamper evident kit and a method of sealing a tamper evident bag.

Background

The transportation of valuables from one place to another, including banknotes, confidential documents or even jewelry, is a process that is often accompanied by criminal activity. Such a threat may be observed in the transfer of cash from a business to a bank. The business employs security companies that specialize in such transportation to ensure cash security. However, the cash value inserted into the secure bag is not always equal to the cash value received by the bank. In this case, it is advisable to identify the person who can gain access to the contents of the security bag. In many cases, production and marketing chain of custody file records are not sufficient. It is therefore necessary to identify suspicion by identifying at which stage the security bag is broken, in particular by visual evidence of the break.

Security bags are durable bags used for the storage and transport of high value goods or confidential documents. The security bag is intended to provide two forms of protection: tamper-proof and tamper evident. The object of the tamper proof is to provide a security bag which prevents unauthorized access by constructing the security bag so as to be difficult to open. Tamper evident (event) security bags, on the other hand, may provide protection in the form of an indication to an observer in the presence of unauthorized access. It should be noted that proof of breach (proof of) security bags are not authentic. Therefore, the combination of the anti-damage and the damage obvious function can provide the best deterrent for criminals.

Various security bags with associated securing means have been described. Such devices are typically secured by special adhesive tape. However, such tapes have the disadvantage of not being able to adequately indicate whether a breach has occurred at the sealed end of the security bag. Moreover, these security bags are expensive to manufacture and require a great deal of effort or attention to obtain an effective seal and subsequently determine whether tampering has occurred.

The inventors are aware of such security bags and sealing devices, and their respective advantages and disadvantages. The present invention aims to provide an improved alternative to existing safety bags and devices by providing a fully tamper evident, sealable safety bag.

Disclosure of Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a tamper evident bag comprising

A safety pouch having at least one opening, the safety pouch provided with a pouch indicator; and

a seal for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the seal being provided with a seal indicator associated with the bag indicator such that unauthorized access to the security bag is clearly visible when the seal has been broken.

The bag indicator and seal indicator may be in the form of visual indicators.

The association between the bag visual indicators and the seal visual indicators may be that the visual indicators are identical to one another, related to one another, associated with one another, etc.

The bag visual indicator and the seal visual indicator may include any one or more of: a numeric code, an alphabetic code, a bar code, a color code, a sequence, a hologram, an image, a symbol, a watermark, a pattern, a geometric design, a shape, an optical diffraction pattern, or the like.

The bag visual indicator and the seal visual indicator may be made from any one or more of laser printing, ink jet printing, thermal transfer printing, impact ribbon printing, embossing, etching, photolithography, flexographic printing, screen printing, gravure printing, hot embossing, magnetic printing, code printing, and the like.

The bag visual indicator and the seal visual indicator are visible to any one or more of the naked eye, infrared light and ultraviolet light.

The security bag is in the form of a rectangular body which is shaped and dimensioned so that it is suitable for accommodating various objects. The security bag can be in the form of an envelope, a pouch, a messenger bag, an express bag, etc. The safety bag may be disposable or non-disposable.

The at least one opening of the security bag, which allows for the insertion of objects into the security bag, is elongated and in the form of slits, windows, holes or the like.

The security bag is manufactured by any one or more of vacuum forming, 3D printing, single-sided welding, single or multiple extrusion and blown film extrusion. In a preferred embodiment the security bag is co-extruded from two materials, each selected for properties such as durability, colour, tear and cut resistance.

The security bag may be made of any suitable material or combination of materials to provide the security bag with durability, tear resistance, cut resistance, etc. Suitable materials include plastics, fabrics, biodegradable materials, and the like. The security bag may be manufactured in any suitable thickness.

The bag visual indicators include one or more of an outer bag visual indicator and an inner bag visual indicator or the like. The inner bag visual indicator is located inside the security bag and is associated with the outer bag visual indicator. In a preferred embodiment, the outer bag visual indicator is in the form of a plurality of outer bag visual indicators. In a preferred embodiment, the safety bag comprises an outer bag visual indicator on an upper portion of the safety bag, proximate to the at least one opening, and an associated outer bag visual indicator on a lower portion of the safety bag.

The seal is integral with the security bag such that the seal forms part of the security bag.

The seal is in the form of an adhesive seal. The adhesive seal comprises a base portion defined by an operatively outer surface of the seal and an adhesive portion defined by an operatively inner surface of the seal, which in use is secured to the security bag. In use, the adhesive portion of the adhesive seal is secured over the at least one opening of the security bag such that the adhesive seal prevents access to the interior of the security bag and thus the contents of the security bag. Preferably the seal visual indicator is provided on both the base portion and the adhesive portion.

The adhesive portion is in the form of a material having adhesive properties for sealing and securing the at least one opening. In particular, the material having adhesive properties ensures that the seal is properly adhered to the security bag, the adhesive curing within two minutes of attaching the seal over the at least one opening.

The adhesive portion includes an adhesive that causes a visible adhesive residue on the security bag when the adhesive seal is removed. The adhesive portion may be in the form of a tape, label, sticker, film, foil, rubber-based seal, or the like. The adhesive portion may further include a pressure sensitive adhesive.

The adhesive portion may include an adhesive that creates a visible adhesive residue when the adhesive seal is removed.

The adhesive portion includes a solvent release layer for, in use, revealing a prior application of solvent to the security bag. The solvent includes any one or more of saliva, water, an acidic solvent, and a basic solvent. In one embodiment, the solvent release layer demonstrates the presence of solvent through an observable change in any of the color changes. In another embodiment, the solvent release layer demonstrates the presence of solvent by adhering portions of the layer to the security bag at locations where solvent was previously applied.

The substrate portion includes an interaction layer for interacting with the adhesive. In particular, the interactive layer interacts with the adhesive to produce an observable change, revealing that another adhesive seal was placed over the original adhesive seal. In use, when another adhesive seal is placed on the substrate portion of the original adhesive seal, the interactive layer may interact with the adhesive, typically to mask the cut in the original adhesive seal.

The adhesive seal is made cut resistant. For example, the adhesive seal is manufactured to include any one of glass particles, glass fibers, and any other cut resistant particles to prevent the adhesive seal from being cut.

The adhesive seal has at least one transparent portion. The adhesive seal is secured over the at least one opening such that the transparent portion covers an outer bag visual indicator of the security bag, the outer bag visual indicator remaining externally visible to an observer.

The adhesive seal is provided with a removable backing strip for storage and shipping purposes. The liner may prevent the adhesive seal from prematurely adhering to an undesired location on the safety bag and may be removed from the adhesive seal prior to use.

The security bag includes a second tamper evident device. The second tamper evident device is in the form of any one or more of a solvent closure, a hot melt strip, and a zip lock. In use, the second tamper evident means causes an irreversible change to the security pouch such that the tamper is evident, the irreversible change being in the form of any one or more of swelling, dissolution, discoloration, deformation and perforation. The second tamper evident device is positioned proximate to any one or more of the at least one opening and the edge of the security bag. The security pouch also includes a sealed, tamper evident edge.

The security bag comprises external or internal printing. External printing may provide instructions, production and marketing chain and writing panels, and the like. The external printing includes printing that destroys the visible security pouch edge seal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a tamper evident kit comprising

A security bag having at least one opening, the security bag being provided with a bag visual indicator; and

a separate seal for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the separate seal having a seal visual indicator associated with the bag visual indicator that a user can attach to the security bag to detect if there is unauthorized access to the security bag after closing.

The tamper evident kit includes a plurality of security bags and associated individual seals.

The associated individual seals are in the form of a roll of multiple seals.

A roll of multiple seals includes a line of weakness between associated individual seals to allow the seals to be easily separated prior to use.

The associated individual seals comprise either series visual indicators or batch visual indicators.

The tamper evident kit includes instructions regarding the sealing process of the security bag.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of breaking a seal of a bag visible to the eye, the method comprising

Providing a security bag having at least one opening, the security bag being provided with at least one bag visual indicator; and

attaching a seal having at least one seal visual indicator to the security bag, the seal sealing at least one opening of the security bag, the seal visual indicator being associated with the bag visual indicator such that the visual indication of the seal and the bag visual indicator not being associated with each other would make unauthorized access apparent.

Attaching the seal to the security bag enables the user to clearly detect when unauthorized entry has occurred through the associated visual indicator.

The invention will now be described by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a tamper evident bag according to one aspect of the present invention; and

fig. 2 illustrates a tamper evident bag according to another aspect of the present invention.

Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements of the present invention unless otherwise specified.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT (S) OF INVENTION

In fig. 1 and 2, reference numeral (10) denotes a tamper evident bag. The tamper evident bag (10) includes a security bag (12) and a separate seal (18). The security bag (12) has an opening (14) and is provided with a bag visual indicator (16). The seal (18) allows for securely closing the opening (14) of the security bag (12) and includes a seal visual indicator (20) associated with the bag visual indicator (16) such that visual indicators not associated with each other indicate that the seal is broken and thus may have unauthorized access to the bag.

As shown, the bag visual indicators (16) are associated with the same seal visual indicator (20). The visual indicators (16, 20) are in the form of letter and number code sequences, specifically "XYZ 1234". Visual indicators (16, 20) have been formed on the security bag (12) and the seal (18) respectively by laser printing. The laser printed visual indicators (16, 20) are visible to the naked eye.

In this example, the security bag (12) is in the form of a rectangular body shaped and dimensioned so that it can accommodate approximately fifty R200 banknotes. The safety bag (12) is in a small bag form, is disposable and is only used for one time. The opening (14) of the security bag (12) is characterized by an elongated slit in the front panel of the security bag (12). The security bag (12) is manufactured by co-extruding two durable plastic materials, each plastic material having a different colour.

As can be seen from the figure, the bag visual indicator (16) is in the form of an external visual indicator and comprises two bag visual indicators (16): a first bag visual indicator (16a) is positioned at an upper portion of the security bag (12) and a second bag visual indicator (16b) is identical to the first bag visual indicator (16a) and positioned at a lower portion of the security bag (12).

The seal (18) is in the form of an adhesive tape and is provided separately. In the drawings, the boundary between the adhesive part and the base part is not shown. A portion of the seal (18) is transparent and forms a transparent strip along the length of the seal (18) flanked by upper and lower opaque strips. The seal visual indicator (20) comprises three separate, spaced apart seal visual indicators (20), one in the upper opaque strip and two in the lower opaque strip.

In fig. 2, a seal (18) is secured over the opening (14) of the security bag (12) to prevent staining of the contents of the security bag (12). The seal (18) is secured over the opening (14) in a manner such that the transparent strip of the seal (18) overlies the first bag visual indicator (16a) such that the first bag visual indicator (16a) is visible to an observer.

The adhesive seal (18) also includes a backing strip (not shown) for storage and shipping purposes. The underwire prevents premature adhesion of the seal (18) to the safety bag (12) at incorrect locations. Before use, the underwire is removed from the seal (18).

The security bag (12) includes a second tamper evident means in the form of a solvent closure (not shown) surrounding the opening (14). The solvent closure causes the security bag (12) to irreversibly dissolve so that any attempted tampering is visibly apparent to the viewer.

As shown in dashed lines in fig. 1 and 2, the security bag (12) includes external printing. The external printing provides a writing panel or the like for recording instructions for use of the tamper evident bag (10) and chain of custody of production and marketing.

In use, a security bag (12) having an opening (14) and two bag visual indicators (16) is provided. A seal (18) having a seal visual indicator (20) identical to the bag visual indicator (16) is secured to the security bag (12) such that a transparent strip of the seal (18) overlies the first bag visual indicator (16a) allowing the bag visual indicator (16a) to be viewable by an observer. If the visual indicators (16, 20) are not properly associated (i.e., identical), the association between the bag visual indicator (16) and the seal visual indicator (20) would make unauthorized access to the bag obvious. In this way, the tamper evident bag (10) enables an observer to clearly detect when unauthorized access has occurred through the associated visual indicators (16, 20).

The inventors believe that the present invention, as described and illustrated, provides a tamper evident bag, a tamper evident kit, and a method of sealing a tamper evident bag that are novel and provide a more superior tamper evident means.

Claims

1. A tamper-evident bag comprising

A security bag having at least one opening, said security bag provided with a bag visual indicator; and

an adhesive seal for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the adhesive seal being provided with a seal visual indicator associated with the bag visual indicator and having at least one transparent portion which is attached, in use, over the at least one opening such that the at least one transparent portion covers the bag visual indicator of the security bag and when the adhesive seal has been broken, it is evident that there is unauthorized access to the security bag.

2. The tamper evident bag of claim 1, wherein the bag visual indicator and the seal visual indicator comprise one or more of a numeric code, an alphabetic code, a bar code, a color code, a sequence, a hologram, a watermark, a geometric design, a shape, and an optical diffraction pattern.

3. A tamper evident bag according to claim 1, wherein said bag visual indicator and said seal visual indicator comprise one or more of an image, a symbol.

4. A tamper evident bag according to claim 1, wherein said bag visual indicator and said seal visual indicator comprise a pattern.

5. A tamper evident bag according to claim 1, wherein said bag visual indicator comprises: an outer bag visual indicator on an upper portion of the safety bag proximate the at least one opening, and an associated outer bag visual indicator on a lower portion of the safety bag.

6. A tamper evident bag according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive seal comprises a base portion defined by an operatively outer surface of the seal and an adhesive portion defined by an operatively inner surface of the seal, the operatively inner surface of the seal being adhered, in use, over the at least one opening of the safety bag such that the adhesive seal prevents access to the interior of the safety bag.

7. A tamper evident bag according to claim 6, wherein said adhesive portion ensures that said adhesive seal is properly adhered to said security bag, said adhesive portion curing within two minutes of affixing said seal over said at least one opening.

8. A tamper evident bag according to claim 7, wherein said adhesive portion comprises an adhesive that causes a visible adhesive residue on said security bag upon removal of said adhesive seal.

9. A tamper evident bag according to claim 8, wherein the adhesive portion comprises a solvent release layer for, in use, releasing a solvent previously applied to the security bag, the solvent comprising any one or more of saliva, water, an acidic solvent and a basic solvent.

10. A tamper evident bag according to claim 9, wherein said solvent release layer reveals the presence of solvent by: any observable change in color change, and the adhesive portion was not attached to the security bag at the location where the solvent was previously applied.

11. The tamper evident bag of claim 8 wherein the base portion includes an interactive layer that interacts with the adhesive to produce an observable change revealing that another adhesive seal was placed over the original adhesive seal.

12. The tamper evident bag of claim 1 wherein said adhesive seal is made cut resistant by including any of glass particles, glass fibers, and any other cut resistant particles.

13. The tamper evident bag of claim 1 wherein the security bag includes a second tamper evident device in the form of any one or more of a solvent closure, a heat-fusible strip, and a zipper lock, the second tamper evident device causing an irreversible change to the security bag in the form of any one or more of swelling, dissolution, discoloration, deformation, and perforation, such that tampering is evident.

14. The tamper evident bag of claim 1 wherein the security bag includes any one or more of exterior printing or interior printing to provide any one or more of an indication of a sealing procedure for the security bag, a writing panel for recording a chain of custody of production and marketing for tampering with the evident bag, and a tamper evident bag edge seal printing.

15. A tamper evident kit comprising

a separate adhesive seal for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the separate adhesive seal having a seal visual indicator associated with the bag visual indicator and the adhesive seal having at least one transparent portion which is affixed, in use, over the at least one opening such that the at least one transparent portion overlies the bag visual indicator of the security bag to detect if there is unauthorized access to the security bag after closure.

16. A tamper evident kit in accordance with claim 15 wherein said individual adhesive seals form part of a roll of a plurality of associated seals having a line of weakness between said associated seals to allow for easy separation of said seals prior to use.

17. A tamper evident kit in accordance with claim 16 wherein said associated seal comprises a series or batch visual indicator.